John Carter, Warrior of Barsoom: 100 Years of Edgar Rice Burroughs First Hero


By Shane Shellenbarger “. . . If people were paid for writing


rot such as I read in some of those magazines then I could write stories just as rotten . . . “


― Edgar Rice Burroughs Edgar Rice Burroughs did not come to


a love of writing in his youth nor out of a love of reading, but out of a practical need to support his family. While he did dabble with stories and poems he wrote for his children and younger relatives, Burroughs was a man in search of his calling. Born in Chicago, Illinois on September 1st, 1875, Burroughs spent his formative years shuttled by his parents from school to school to protect him from a variety of illnesses. Feeling conversant in Greek and Latin, Burroughs was known to quip that his education in English suffered due to these many moves. His reinforced


Military Academy in 1895, Burroughs accepted a teaching post there following the failure of his entrance exam at West Point Military Academy. Early in 1896, he left Michigan Military and entered the U.S. Army as a buck private. He worked his way into the Seventh Cavalry stationed at Fort Grant in Arizona Territory. Despite dreams of catching renegades and protecting the frontiers folk, Burroughs dug ditches, repaired the decaying fort, and caught dysentery. During a routine medical exam, he was found to have a heart murmur, effectively dashing his hopes of becoming an officer and ending his military career. Discharged in 1897, Burroughs returned to Idaho for more cow punching with his brothers and a brief stint managing a dry goods store. In 1899, he returned to Chicago, took a position working at American Battery Company for his father. In 1900, Burroughs married his childhood sweetheart, Emma Centennia Hulbert, but his wanderlust drove the married couple back to Idaho in 1904. His brothers had given up on cattle


ranching


in favor of gold dredging, but that job soon dwindled down to nothing. Between 1904 and 1911, Burroughs tried his hand at being a railway policeman in Salt Lake City, a door- to-door salesman, an accountant, a clerical department manager


for


education in classical literature and mythology likely provided the source material for his fantastic tales. When an influenza epidemic hit Chicago in 1891, Burroughs parents sent the fifteen-year- old Edgar to Idaho where his elder brothers, George and Harry, had started a cattle ranch a few years earlier. Edgar spent six months as a ranch hand for his brothers until his parents found out that Idaho was a rough-and-tumble place to grow up. They soon sent Edward off to the Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, followed by the Michigan Military Academy at Orchard Lake.


After graduating from the Michigan Page 14


Sears, Roebuck & Company, a peddler for a fraudulent alcoholism cure,


and a pencil sharpener wholesaler in Chicago. By this time, Burroughs had a wife, two children, and he was becoming desperate to keep a roof over their heads and food on the table. One of Burroughs duties for the pencil sharpener wholesale company was to verify the companies advertisements in various magazines. While performing his job, Burroughs began to read the pulp magazines stories and soon decided that he could write more entertaining works. Beginning in 1911, Burroughs completed the forty thousand word novel he originally entitled, “Dejah Thoris, Martain Princess.” Not wishing to be accused of lunacy for


his fanciful tale, Burroughs submitted the manuscript to All-Story magazine under the pseudonym, Normal Bean. Editor Thomas Metcalf offered the princely sum of $400.00, which Burroughs accepted. The title was changed to “Under the Moons of Mars,” the pseudonym was changed to Norman Bean, and the story was serialized from February to July in 1912. When it came out in book form the title was changed to “A Princess of Mars” by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Burroughs completed a second novel, “The Outlaw of Torn” which Metcalf rejected. When the final installment of “Under the Moons of Mars” hit newsstands, Burroughs submitted his third novel to Metcalf, for which the editor paid $700.00. That book was entitled, “Tarzan of the Apes.” Burroughs no longer needed to sell pencil sharpeners. While overshadowed by the popularity


of his younger ape-man sibling, John Carter had his origins in the experiences of the young Edgar Rice Burroughs. The time Burroughs spent with his brothers in rough-and-tumble Idaho, as a cavalry man in the Arizona territory, and dredging for gold, equipped the writer with the first-hand background he needed to realistically anchor his fantastic tales on the Red Planet. The action in A Princess of Mars


begins with ex-Confederate army officer, Captain John Carter of Virginia, and his partner, Captain James K. Powell of Richmond. They have been


ConNotations


prospecting for gold and in three months have retrieved over a million dollars worth of ore. The two decide that Powell will return to civilization to acquire the equipment and man-power necessary to work the mine. Carter will remain behind to guard the claim. Powell is captured by Apaches, Carter rescues his partner, temporarily eludes the pursuing Apaches, and discovers a strange cave in the Arizona desert. Carter determines that Powell has perished during the ordeal. While investigating the cave, Carter becomes drowsy and is then overcome by extreme exhaustion which turns into paralysis. Facing the mouth of the cave, Carter watches as the Apaches approach with a mixture of wonder and fear on their faces. A low, moaning sound behind Carter causes the Apaches to flee with such carelessness that one of their number falls over a cliff to the rocks below. Still unable to move, Carter watches the day turn into night, the night reach its zenith, when he hears again the moaning sound from the interior of the cave. Fighting with every fiber of his being, Carter wrenches himself upward, his back against the cave wall. He sees at his feet his clothed body, paralyzed, staring toward the cave mouth. He looks at his nude, standing body, and attempts to make sense of the dichotomy. He leaps out of the cave and undergoes an even more startling transformation. Seeing the planet Mars at perigee in the night sky, Carter opens his arms wide to the planet named for the god of war,


Volume 22 Issue 3


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